Navdeep Singh who rose to fame after directing Manorama - Six Feet Under has finalized most of the caste for his next venture Basra .The lead roles in the movie will be played by Akshaye Khanna, Madhavan and Shahana Goswami. This will be his first attempt at commercial cinema. Mukesh Talreja and Nikhil Advani will be producing the movie, who saw their last movie Chandni Chowk To China flop at the box office.

Navdeep has signed don two good actors for the lead but quite different in their styles of acting. Therefore, what was it that made him sign on Akshaye and Madhavan? He says Akshaye was best suited to play the role of investigating officer, as he has been very good in suspense movies. I went with Madhavan after seeing the quality of work that he has been doing over the years. He will be playing a cop in the movie.

The Tamil remake of Yuva was the one performance that impressed Navdeep the most where he played the character played by Abhishek Bachchan. Shahana Goswami made her work speak for herself and the skill she showed in the movies Rock On and Firaaq is what made me pick her. The story is set in the town of Basra, which is in Iraq.

It happens to the second most populated city after Baghdad and it is home to Sinbad the sailor. Navdeep has not divulged much about the thriller but he says that he will keep the audiences in mind and they will not leave the theatres disappointed.